Growth strategy
The payback was nine months. The cash came back in nineteen.
A healthy payback figure and an empty bank account are not a contradiction: they are two different measurements, and only one of them pays wages.
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Growth strategy
The pilot succeeded. It was never a step towards the rollout.
Most pilots that fail to convert didn't fail on performance: they were a different sale to a different room, and…
Operations
You negotiated the price. The specification had already set it.
Most procurement effort goes into the last few per cent of a number that was decided years earlier, by someone…
Pricing
The deal was won in week two. The discount was given in week thirteen.
Period-end concessions look like the cost of closing. Often they're the cost of a reporting boundary, and buyers learn the…
Operations
The report arrives on the 15th. The decision was made on the 3rd.
Most reporting complaints get diagnosed as accuracy problems. The more expensive fault is usually timing, and better numbers won't fix…
Leadership
The business ran fine for two weeks. You’d cleared the decisions before you left.
Two weeks away is the most popular test of owner dependency, and it samples the one fortnight of the year…
Growth strategy
The partnership is signed. You’re one of three names on the list.
A referral partner isn't a distribution channel: they're a shortlist, and the firm that understands what the partner is actually…
Operations
The invoice was paid on time. It went out eleven days late.
Most firms chase the customer for slow payment when the largest, cheapest stretch of the delay sits entirely on their…
Growth strategy
The month you grew fastest was the month you nearly ran out
Profit and cash pull apart hardest when things go well, and the arithmetic that sets how fast a business can…
Growth strategy
You won eleven of them. You could afford six.
Growth has a speed limit, and it is set by the gap between paying for the work and being paid…
Take it further
This is the general pattern. Your business is the specific case.
Everything here is free to read with an account, and always will be. What it cannot do is tell you which of these applies to your numbers, your market and your constraints. That is the work we do with clients.